Sew...A Dress??? or Two or Three???

photo from dillards.com

My current day job as a Human Resources Professional, requires me to wear a suit or some sort of professional "ensemble" five days a week. This can be tiring and boring because there are only so many ways to "dress up" a business suit and quite frankly, I'm sick and tired of pant suits.

A few years ago, I had a different job, and not to mention the fact that I was A LOT smaller than I am these days. I used to wear cute dresses with sweaters all the time and it was appropriate - maybe even overdressed for that particular company. I was comfortable and professional at the same time.

With spring right around the corner - I'm thinking that maybe I could try my hand at making a couple of very basic dresses to wear with sweaters or a blazer depending on the day. I found these vintage patterns in my stash. There's only one problem - I have no idea as to how I am supposed to use a pattern. Well two, these dresses are a little more "intricate" than I want to make.

I've thought about going to Goodwill and picking out a $4.00 dress that I like and tearing it apart to make my own pattern. Will this work??? I really hope that it will because I have a tremendous amount of vintage polyester fabric that I practically stole from a thrift store that I could definitely picture as a dress.

Do you use patterns? Any tips?

Vintage

My mother and I went thrifting the other day.... Look at all of those vintage threads and buttons! The colors are all so bright! It reminds me of Spring!

My Second Step....

Here's where I laid out my patterened pieces.... I must say - IGNORANCE IS BLISS. At this point, I still don't realize how bad this is going to be.

Sneak Peak

Look at those crooked strips... I'll post my progress later - It is really sad but it has been a very valuable learning experience for me. I am currently cutting more strips trying to be as precise as possible.

What do you think??

So I have 3 options here.... I want to apologize ahead of time for the poor photo quality. This project has knocked the breath out of me. It has thrown me head over heels into spring fever and there is no turning back.

Option 1. Ruffle the fabric and sew to the panel - see the left panel in the photo below.

Option 2. Sew the fabric on as is and embellish with a ribbon where the two fabrics meet. (I like this one).
Option 3. Ditch the teal fabric all together and lower the panels.


IF I decide to add the fabric - I will probably opt for stitch witchery instead of actually sewing them together - this way I can change it if I get sick of it.

Hubs hates the fabric option but he just doesn't understand where I'm coming from on this... In this case, his opinion doesn't exist.

Today I Must....

Purchase one of these.... (photo from target.com).

Because I have moved my craft area from the basement to the living room. I guess you could call it the "formal" living room if there is such a thing in this house! Why do I need to purchase it today?? Well, today is the last day of January! Remember, I am on a spending freeze in February! I must hurry!

The desk took the place of the recliner... Remember that cheap table I tried to paint last week?? There it is to the left. It didn't turn out too bad - It'll do for now. If I want to sew, I just move the computer and pull the sewing machine out of here... The same goes form my scrapbook supplies.

Nope, its not fancy but it will do. I wasn't inspired in the basement. For some reason, I am inspired upstairs!

"Sew for Toddlers"... by Kerstin Martensson

So I bought this book from on of my FAVORITE thrift stores the other day. Yes - I did pay a full $3.00 for it which I feel is justified because I liked the book. Considering that it was made in 1979 and is a paperback its condition is superb.

The dress and one piece jumper patters in there are awesome- not to mention that these styles are TIMELESS as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure you could find free patterns on the Internet but whatever... The book was $3.00 and I bought it.

These little outfits may just sell in an etsy store....